Sarah
by animegus farmus
Summary: A life of dreams and wishes...


_Disclaimer: If the Goblin King gave me my dreams I'd own Tin Man first, but maybe I'd make a bid for Labyrinth while I was at it…_

_Author's Note: Hello Labyrinth fandom readers, you do not know me and I will not introduce myself as it is my intent that you continue not to know me. The other day I had the nostalgic whim to watch a movie I hadn't seen in a long, long time, should have been harmless right? Then I had an amusing thought. I ignored it. I'd heard there was a manga sequel, I checked it out, the reviews were not encouraging, so I thought maybe I'd check out the fanfic…_

_Yeah, so I should have listened to all the screaming alarm bells and flashing lights in the brain-brain. I'm still ignoring the amusing thought, though (you don't know me, but some readers that do may have followed me here, and they know why I protest so much). Sigh.  
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Her friends always swore she lived a charmed life, passing scathless through dangers untold as if the universe would move the stars themselves should one try to harm her. When lost in the rainforests of Brazil, she'd been the one to lead them back, laughing as she claimed to ask the worms for directions. Falling from a cliff in Peru, she was found halfway down, unharmed and tangled in roots and branches, holding her fast like so many helping hands as she enjoyed the most spectacular view. Trapped in the cave systems of France, she found a way out as easy as if she'd only momentarily forgotten where the exit lay. All the bulls of Spain couldn't run her down, there was ever a convenient nook or alley or ladder or doorway that seemed to be just waiting to appear just when she needed it most.

Sometimes it seemed to her friends as if the entire world were there just to help her out. Winding their way down the kind of streets tourists generally didn't – and probably shouldn't – travel, it was she who always seemed to find someone willing to give them wise advice about the way forward…and the way back. Chased by gangs of ruffians through deserted streets of an urban jungle, she was invariably offered a means of escape. She could make liars speak truths, cowards fight, and the most stubborn of obstacles step from her path.

Even nature itself seemed to be on her side, no matter what she might say to the contrary. She'd find food in the desert and tell them not to haggle about where she got it. When the Rocky Mountains tried to bury her, the huff of expelled air as she tripped and fell apparently convinced the howling wilderness to call the rocks back from her. She told them not to be ludicrous. The one time she was ever cornered, her oddly incoherent cry seemed to call forth the hounds of hell themselves, as the most vicious feral dog they'd ever seen drove off her attacker only to turn right around and fawn at her feet as if recognizing its lady. And they couldn't make her admit for one second that there was anything the least strange about her furry knight gallant.

She lived in dreams and adventures, they knew, facing the world with such innocent wisdom and childish joy that none could help being caught in her spell. There wasn't a riddle she couldn't solve, a challenge she couldn't overcome, a maze that could trap her or a person she couldn't befriend. It seemed sometimes like she was magic and life itself, an eternal being of light and wonder…

…and then one day the earth brought the walls crashing down upon her.

One of her friends thought they heard her call out for Jared, though she seemed to lisp the name a little in her terror, but for all the world appeared to stand still in that moment there was no _time_ for mere humans to do anything. The world exhaled and cruel reality fell in on a dreamer's forever, burying their belief in magic beneath mundane truth.

They never did find her body in the ruins, some chose to believe that maybe, just maybe, she'd proved invincible once more. She had always live a charmed life after all, and on the day they laid her memory to rest the most unexpected, spectacular meteor shower lit up the sky…

…as if someone were moving the stars, just for her.


End file.
